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Author: Maralani, Vida
Resulting in 7 citations.
1. Maralani, Vida
Breastfeeding Success and Expectations for More Children
Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Breastfeeding; Fertility

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In this study, I show how symbolic success in childrearing can cause women to increase their fertility intentions. Prior research shows that women who breastfeed for longer durations have more children overall than women who breastfeed for shorter durations. Using a life course approach, I examine the fertility intentions of women based on how long they breastfeed their firstborn. Although women do not differ in their fertility intentions before the start of childbearing based on how long they breastfeed their firstborn (when they finally have that child), women who breastfeed for longer durations systematically increase their fertility intentions in the year that they have their firstborn. Succeeding at breastfeeding may serve as a signal that women can fulfill the cultural and "expert-driven" expectations of modern intensive parenting. Given this signal of success, women increase how many children they expect to have.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida. "Breastfeeding Success and Expectations for More Children." Presented: Austin TX, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2019.
2. Maralani, Vida
From GED to College: Age Trajectories of Nontraditional Educational Paths
American Educational Research Journal 48,5 (October 2011): 1058-1090.
Also: http://aer.sagepub.com/content/48/5/1058
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Educational Research Association
Keyword(s):

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Age patterns of secondary certification and college entry differ in complex and surprising ways for traditional graduates and GED recipients. Although GED recipients are less likely to enter college in their late teens, they catch up to traditional graduates in their 20s. Results show that adjusting for differences in the age trajectories of school continuation accounts for a substantial portion of the differences observed between the two groups. Important differences remain, however, in the type of college attended and the likelihood of college entry before age 21. Nonetheless, more GED recipients enroll in college than previous studies have suggested, and this interest in college identifies a useful place for policy to intervene to encourage school continuation for this group.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida. "From GED to College: Age Trajectories of Nontraditional Educational Paths." American Educational Research Journal 48,5 (October 2011): 1058-1090.
3. Maralani, Vida
McKee, Douglas
Obesity Is in the Eye of the Beholder: BMI and Socioeconomic Outcomes across Cohorts
Sociological Science published online (19 April 2017): DOI: 10.15195/v4.a13.
Also: https://www.sociologicalscience.com/articles-v4-13-288
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY97
Publisher: Sociological Science
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Family Income; Gender Differences; Obesity; Racial Differences; Socioeconomic Factors; Wage Penalty/Career Penalty; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The biological and social costs of body mass cannot be conceptualized in the same way. Using semiparametric methods, we show that the association between body mass index (BMI) and socioeconomic outcomes such as wages, being married, and family income is distinctly shaped by gender, race, and cohort rather than being above a specific threshold of BMI. For white men, the correlation between BMI and outcomes is positive across the “normal” range of BMI and turns negative near the cusp of the overweight range, a pattern that persists across cohorts. For white women, thinner is nearly always better, a pattern that also persists across cohorts. For black men in the 1979 cohort, the association between BMI and wages is positive across the normal and overweight ranges for wages and family income and inverted U-shaped for marriage. For black women in the 1979 cohort, thinner is better for wages and marriage. By the 1997 cohort, however, the negative association between body mass and outcomes dissipates for black Americans but not for white Americans. In the social world, "too fat" is a subjective, contingent, and fluid judgment that differs depending on who is being judged, who does the judging, and the social domain.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida and Douglas McKee. "Obesity Is in the Eye of the Beholder: BMI and Socioeconomic Outcomes across Cohorts." Sociological Science published online (19 April 2017): DOI: 10.15195/v4.a13.
4. Maralani, Vida
Portier, Camille
Does a College Degree Offset the Wage Penalties Associated with Gender-Essentialized Job Skills?
Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Job Skills; Modeling, Growth Curve/Latent Trajectory Analysis; Occupational Information Network (O*NET); Wage Penalty/Career Penalty

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Skills pay off in the labor market and rising returns to educational attainment suggest growing demand by employers for workers with higher skills. However, skills are hierarchically organized by other attributes as well--for example, jobs skills can be gender essentialized. Work that involves caring for others requires feminine-essentialized skills whereas work that requires engineering skills is essentialized as masculine. Our study investigates the intersection of these dimensions by examining whether a college degree can offset the wage penalties associated with gender-essentialized jobs skills across a continuum from feminine to masculine. The analyses use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in 1997 (NLSY-97) combined with detailed information from the O*NET database of occupational characteristics and growth curve models. Our results show that a college degree can close and even reverse gender wage gaps for job skills that are essentialized feminine but not those essentialized as masculine.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida and Camille Portier. "Does a College Degree Offset the Wage Penalties Associated with Gender-Essentialized Job Skills?" Presented: Atlanta GA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2022.
5. Maralani, Vida
Stabler, Samuel
Intensive Parenting: Fertility and Breastfeeding Duration in the United States
Demography 55,5 (October 2018): 1681-1704.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-018-0710-7
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Breastfeeding; Expectations/Intentions; Fertility

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using 30 years of longitudinal data from a nationally representative cohort of women, we study the association between breastfeeding duration and completed fertility, fertility expectations, and birth spacing. We find that women who breastfeed their first child for five months or longer are a distinct group. They have more children overall and higher odds of having three or more children rather than two, compared with women who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. Expected fertility is associated with initiating breastfeeding but not with how long mothers breastfeed. Thus, women who breastfeed longer do not differ significantly from other breastfeeding women in their early fertility expectations. Rather, across the life course, these women achieve and even exceed their earlier fertility expectations. Women who breastfeed for shorter durations (1-21 weeks) are more likely to fall short of their expected fertility than to achieve or exceed their expectations, and they are significantly less likely than women who breastfeed for longer durations (≥22 weeks) to exceed their expected fertility. In contrast, women who breastfeed longer are as likely to exceed as to achieve their earlier expectations, and the difference between their probability of falling short versus exceeding their fertility expectations is relatively small and at the boundary of statistical significance (p = .096). These differences in fertility are not explained by differences in personal and family resources, including family income or labor market attachment. Our findings suggest that breastfeeding duration may serve as a proxy for identifying a distinct approach to parenting. Women who breastfeed longer have reproductive patterns quite different than their socioeconomic position would predict. They both have more children and invest more time in those children.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida and Samuel Stabler. "Intensive Parenting: Fertility and Breastfeeding Duration in the United States." Demography 55,5 (October 2018): 1681-1704.
6. Maralani, Vida
Stabler, Samuel
The Fertility Patterns of Women Who Breastfeed
Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Births, Repeat / Spacing; Breastfeeding; Expectations/Intentions; Family Size; Fertility

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Demographers have long studied breastfeeding as part of the process of fertility. There is, however, little demographic work on how breastfeeding fits into women's reproductive lives in the U.S. Using longitudinal data from a cohort of American women with completed fertility, we study the relationship between breastfeeding and subsequent fertility timing and levels. We also study differences in fertility intentions early in life by the breastfeeding status women go on to have. We find that women who breastfeed their first child for at least five months have larger families than those who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. These women also have significantly shorter intervals between births. Moreover, these women report higher expected fertility at ages 14-22, before ever conceiving their first child. These findings run counter to the quality-quantity tradeoff. Women who breastfeed choose both to have more children and to invest more time in those children.
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida and Samuel Stabler. "The Fertility Patterns of Women Who Breastfeed." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016.
7. Maralani, Vida
Stabler, Samuel
The Wages and Work Patterns of Women Who Breastfeed Their Children
Presented: New Orleans LA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Breastfeeding; Earnings; Labor Force Participation; Maternal Employment; Wages

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We revisit the question of how the earnings of women who breastfeed might differ from the earnings of those who do not. Breastfeeding is just one of numerous changes, constraints, and choices that come with having a new child. In order to understand the role that breastfeeding plays in the working lives of women, our analyses link this question back to the larger literature on work and motherhood. We describe differences in women’s economic outcomes (wages, weeks worked, annual earnings) by breastfeeding separately for those who stay in the labor force versus those who take time off or leave. We answer the following research questions: do women who breastfeed their children have different work patterns, including leaves from work, than women who do not breastfeed at all? Conditional on working within one year after giving birth, what is the difference in the wages that women earn by breastfeeding status?
Bibliography Citation
Maralani, Vida and Samuel Stabler. "The Wages and Work Patterns of Women Who Breastfeed Their Children." Presented: New Orleans LA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2013.